Debbie Wasserman Schultz, provided details about the legislation, which would require major airports to build expansive operation centers in which police, airport managers, airline representatives and others can work side by side.

For the first time, U.S. airports would be required to develop detailed plans to deal with crises like last year’s Fort Lauderdale airport shootings, under legislation introduced Monday by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The legislation requires major airports to build expansive operation centers in which police, airport managers, airline representatives and others can work side by side, using advanced technology to monitor airport activities and respond more quickly to emergencies.

Advertisement

The legislation also forces airports to submit security plans to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that include detailed training programs for active threats, crowd management, mass evacuations, and restarting operations. The congresswoman wants airports nationwide to improve how they communicate information in a crisis to airlines, passengers, ground transportation crews, the media and others.

On Jan. 6, 2017, a lone shooter killed five in the baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and wounded six others. Broward County Sheriff’s deputies apprehended the man within 90 seconds, but chaos broke out an hour and a half later, as rumors spread of a second shooter.

Terrified passengers, along with confused airport workers and TSA agents, dropped everything and ran through the airport, onto the street or through security and onto the tarmac. Some people were trampled. Others hid in fear.

Passengers and workers were stranded for up to 12 hours with little information and only limited food or water.

Wasserman Schultz’s bill requires airports to have plans to shelter evacuees when necessary and provide food, water, medicine and other services.

Four South Florida Democratic representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of Wasserman Schultz’s bill, called the Airport Advanced Logistics, Emergency Response and Training Act — or ALERT.

The bill also has two Miami Republican backers thus far, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, an advantage in the push to move the bill to passage in the GOP-controlled chamber. Diaz-Balart, as the chairman of a key appropriations subcommittee over transportation issues, has considerable influence in funding airport projects.

Wasserman Schultz said she’s worked for months to gather input from experts about safety improvements at airports and believes that more Republicans will join in debating the issue and will have additional suggestions on reforms.

Wasserman Schultz stressed that a federal law is needed because the Fort Lauderdale chaos was not an isolated incident. Similar panics have broken out elsewhere: in 2013 at Los Angeles International Airport after a gunman killed a TSA officer and in 2016 at John F. Kennedy International airport in New York City, where sounds of bar patrons cheering an Olympic track star’s victory were mistaken for gunfire.

Key reforms recommended after those episodes were not effective or not in place at the time of the Fort Lauderdale shootings.

A South Florida Sun Sentinel investigation in April found that breakdowns in training and communication fueled the turmoil that engulfed the airport. Later reviews by the sheriff’s office and an airport consultant corroborated the newspaper’s findings.

Many airports, such as Dallas-Ft. Worth International, have already seen a need for a central hub, staffed around the clock with representatives of critical divisions and agencies.

Miami International Airport is in the process of replacing its antiquated control room with a 10,000-square-foot, integrated center in the D Concourse where managers for security, airfield and terminal operations, and parking facilities would work together to monitor cameras, flight data and other information.

Fort Lauderdale airport executives support the idea and are studying it, officials said.

At a news conference Monday, Fort Lauderdale Airport CEO Mark Gale said he and his staff are moving forward with training programs for 15,000 airport employees, including how to react to a gunman and how to provide basic first aid.

In the past, many workers were required only to watch a brief video about what to do if someone started shooting.

After the Fort Lauderdale incident it became clear that gate agents, ticket takers, skycaps, baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants and other workers felt they were “wholly unprepared” that day to handle the crisis, the congresswoman said. “They weren’t certain what they were supposed to do,” she said.